Destination: Stewardship Finding our way to a Sustainable Visitor Economy
Reconsidering Travel and Tourism Industry Impacts and Responsibilities
As travel and tourism professionals we have been given an immense responsibility. We’ve been tasked with wisely using the resources we’ve been entrusted with. Historically we’ve thought of those resources as occupancy tax dollars and wise use as effective spending on destination marketing and management. And by those measures we’ve done good work. But we must start to think beyond tax dollars and marketing campaigns.
In recent years it has become clear that the impact of our work extends well beyond the confines of hotels and attractions. Our work touches the neighborhoods residents live in and the small businesses they run. It affects the communities whose food and music make our destinations vibrant. It reaches both the wild spaces surrounding our cities and the green spaces tucked into those cities.
When we start to think of our impact on these intertwined people and places, it becomes clear that we have been entrusted with much more than dollars. We’ve been entrusted with shaping the future of the people and places that make up our destinations. When we start to think holistically like this, our obligation to adopt a new way to work becomes clear. We need a new approach that proactively builds positive social and environmental outcomes and fosters sustainable economic growth.
Many destination organizations have already taken the important step of moving from a strictly marketing model and have broadened their scope. For example, certain destinations have responded well to overtourism, growing into the challenge and evolving their work to include destination management. Yet there is still so much we can do to make a lasting positive impact through our work.
The challenge now is to work toward a new model. The communities we serve and the natural environments we operate in need more from us. They need us to take the lead on creating a new framework for the industry, where measuring the triple bottom line—people, planet and profit—is standard practice and tourism serves and benefits all stakeholders.
How will travel and tourism organizations adapt and balance meeting consumer demands, providing value to stakeholder businesses, and generating better outcomes for residents at the same time?
How will they spend funds wisely to produce the positive impacts that visitors and communities demand and deserve? It is time for the travel and tourism industry to evolve and grow into Destination Stewardship.
Defining Destination Stewardship
We have an amazing opportunity to shape the future of the places we represent by expanding from a management model to a stewardship model. And if we are going to do the good work that our communities need us to do, we must start now. As the proverb reminds us, “The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago. The second-best time is now.” If we want our work to result in flourishing communities twenty years from now, the time to act is now.
Destination Stewardship is a collective and transformative mindset. It calls on us to be proactive in our work and to protect and amplify the long-term value of a destination for visitors and residents alike. It aims to move us past controlling the effects of our wildly successful marketing campaigns and urges us to adopt the role of caretaker, crafting strategies designed to foster better outcomes for the local community and its natural environment.
It asks us to take the long view, to imagine this destination decades from now—perhaps even beyond our own lifetimes—and make decisions with this future place and
its people in mind. It looks for opportunities to create positive impacts for residents and the environment.
It engages all stakeholders from the start and aligns our work with their needs, wants and values.
It takes everything we’ve learned through our successful targeted marketing and management approaches and asks us to apply these lessons holistically, considering the entire ecosystem of people and resources that bring the destination experience to life.
“This is not to say that we no longer engage in the important marketing and management work. Destination Stewardship is not about abandoning our roots. It is about recognizing and embracing the natural evolution of that expertise and practice.”
The public has become more aware of the potential for tourism
to have unintended negative consequences, as we’ve seen
from news coverage of destinations like Barcelona, Venice and
Amsterdam. This awareness brings with it an urgency to orient
ourselves, our businesses and our communities toward an approach that considers the intertwined social, environmental and economic outcomes in planning and success measures. In the travel and tourism industry this means a model that benefits residents, protects the local environment and its assets, and still generates positive economic impact through visitor dollars.
You may be familiar with the concept of the triple bottom line, a framework that holds businesses accountable to people, planet and profit in equal measure. Most business models already lead to huge social and environmental impacts, but until recently, destination organizations have focused on the economic impacts. Economic growth has brought with it many positive effects, but often it is prioritized over things like quality of life or preservation of natural resources.
This is not to say that we no longer engage in the important marketing and management work. Destination Stewardship is not about abandoning our roots. It is about recognizing and embracing the natural evolution of that expertise and practice. It is an intentional expansion of destination marketing and management that’s necessary to stay relevant.
A Tale of Two Yards
Let’s imagine two neighborhood yards. In
the first yard, the homeowners have taken a “management” approach to their space. Last spring, they laid sod and chose a few plants to accent the space. They installed an automatic sprinkler and hired a pest control company. In
the summer it’s a great place for the kids to run around, and on Friday afternoons they invite the neighbors over for dinner on the patio. In the fall, they rake the leaves and cover the patio furniture. Certainly, many homeowners get fine results this way—a tidy yard that accents the house, meets certain needs for an outdoor space, and hopefully isn’t too time-consuming to maintain. It’s inviting, functional and well-used.
In the second yard, the homeowners have taken a “stewardship” approach. Years ago, they drafted a master plan, envisioning a joyful, peaceful place. Every year new plants were layered in, and now
a lush landscape of mature plants fills the yard. There is always something interesting to see as every season has been considered and planned for. Sculptures hide between thoughtfully chosen plants, awaiting discovery. Every corner of the yard has been carefully curated. Insects are recognized as an important part of the natural ecosystem. Ladybugs and birds are encouraged to take up residence to balance the insect population and pollinator-attracting plants entice bees and butterflies who pollinate plants all over the neighborhood. A path winds through the yard, giving visitors a guided discovery of color, texture, scent, and sound. The family continues to enjoy this beautiful place long after the visitors are gone, in every season, year after year. This yard is the work of a master gardener, and a place built for everyone.
In the future, destination organizations will need to become master gardeners: creating a vision, balancing the needs of all, delivering valuable experiences for visitors, and leaving a legacy for residents.
Destination Stewardship in Practice
What will Destination Stewardship look like in practice? It will be dependent on where it’s implemented. You’ll have to consider things like your destination’s maturity and stage of development, as well as what your stakeholders tell you is important. Each destination will approach stewardship in a different way. Destination Stewardship will evolve to meet specific challenges and be tailored to each place, but certain elements will be consistent. We see three ways it will likely manifest across the industry: It will change the way we choose to measure success; new industry standards and benchmarks will emerge; and cooperative problem-solving will become a standard approach.
Metrics
The standard industry metrics—occupancy, average daily rate and tourism occupancy tax growth—certainly have their place and have served us well for a long time. However, there is plenty of room to define new metrics that give us different information, measuring the industry’s social, environmental and economic impact on the local community. For instance, tracking new business applications in a target area might give us an idea of the positive economic impact on local small businesses. Or pedestrian counts might illustrate the effectiveness of redistributing visitation to new neighborhoods.
Accountability
It wasn’t long ago that organic farming was nothing more than a small movement of independent farmers growing things naturally as best they could. Thirty years ago, it didn’t seem like organic farming would scale. Yet consumer demand exploded, the industry experienced exponential growth, and a certification program was implemented. The travel
and tourism industry might also see the creation of a similar certification program—a holistic, industry-accepted benchmark that considers community benefits and environmental impacts on equal footing with economics.
Cooperation
When we engage the whole community in strategic planning and envisioning a desired future, they become partners in creative problem-solving. Consider the issue of homelessness, which can have a negative impact on visitor perception. How do we address the challenge in a meaningful way without overwhelming our own resources? In one example, a destination organization cooperating with local businesses and agencies might lead to a public/private partnership where an aging hotel is used as a temporary housing solution. In exchange, the hotel would qualify for tax rebates that free up capital needed for renovations.
The Journey Starts with One Conversation
How do we shift the mindset of an entire industry to think holistically and decades ahead? It can be overwhelming to consider making such a radical change. But it is possible, and it takes just one conversation to start.
Being good Destination Stewards is going to take thoughtful outreach and careful listening to the individual voices of every stakeholder. How do we engage and hear so many people before moving forward? A Chinese proverb notes: “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” So too our journey of a thousand conversations will start with just one.
It takes courage to take that first step and have that first conversation. Will you be the one to suggest to your organization that the time is now? Will you be the one to start asking bigger questions: How does our work benefit our community? How can we preserve our sense of place while promoting visitation? What is our greater responsibility?
Creating a lasting positive impact starts here and now. As destination leaders, we are being called upon to help guide the industry into this necessary new era of Destination Stewardship. Together, we have a responsibility to plant the seeds today that will leave our destinations better than we found them. Let us all take this first step together by having the courage to start the conversation.
